Some computing devices ship with multiple operating systems (OSs) installed by the manufacturer. For example, a computing device may include both a general-purpose operating system such as Microsoft® Windows™ as well as a mobile-oriented operating system such as Android.™ Typical computing devices may support multiple operating systems in a dual-boot or multi-boot configuration. However, switching between operating systems in a multi-boot configuration may be lengthy and typically requires the unused operating system(s) to shut down and lose state. Some computing devices are capable of “toggling” between operating systems without losing active operating system state based on some event (e.g., a system event or a user-initiated event such as a hardware button press or a software command). Those computing devices may toggle between operating systems using power management features, for example by causing the active operating system to hibernate to disk (e.g., by entering the ACPI “S4” power management state). Such hibernation-based operating system toggling is typically referred to as “S4 toggle.”
The ACPI “S3” power management state allows computing devices to enter a low-powered state while retaining the contents of volatile memory. Many recent processors, chipsets, and systems-on-chips (SoCs) are capable of a connected-standby power management state instead of the ACPI S3 sleep state. The connected-standby power management state may allow those computing devices to perform certain network tasks while in a low-powered state. Many current computing devices are not capable of entering the S3 sleep state. Additionally, if a computing device is placed into S3 mode, the power utilization benefits of connected standby may be lost.